Page 51 of Sweethearts and Savages
“Stacey.”
“Look, Stacey, what I’ve heard of The Hounds and Eden is a lot different.”
I just bet it was. “And where did you hear these stories? Because if it wasn’t from someone who was there, who was so indoctrinated to the idea of having her blood drawn, to only seeing the sun once every week that she thought it was a treat, then your information is wrong.”
He was silent then, his eyes distant as I finished the last few sutures in his cheek as well. My stitches were neat and precise, and I was happy that they would barely scar.
I stepped back, packing up my equipment for disposal. He frowned as he watched me work. I grabbed my surgical scissors and walked behind him. “Being immobilized for so long is bad for your blood flow. If I release you, do you promise not to attack me? Because I can promise you, there are things from your very worst nightmare that would kill you in a hundred different ways, very slowly, if you hurt me.”
He shook his head. “That’s not my thing. I’m a pacifist. I do my guerilla warfare from behind a keyboard. Blood makes me want to puke.”
I weighed the variables: the fact that he was human, there were no weapons, and at least ten highly trained shifters were right outside the door. I cut his bindings.
He wrenched his hands in front of him, shaking out his palms. He looked up at me. “What will they do with me?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, Cedric. You’re a human who knows too much, who worked against Eden. That's still a possible security threat.”
“Call me Frost.”
It kind of suited him, with his pale, almost Nordic skin. Would it be rude to ask him his heritage? Probably. I inclined my head. “You pose a threat, not to just Eden, but to the supernatural community as a whole. What you don’t realize is that Eden lives up to its name. The people here have always striven to make this a place of sanctuary. The rest of the supernatural community? Less gentle.”
That was an understatement. You would be hard pressed to find an older supernatural without blood on their hands, supernatural or human. Just the vampire Lucius alone would have spilled enough blood to drown in.
But no more than humankind spilled of its own blood every day. I wouldn’t sugarcoat it for him. “Like any society, human included, the preternatural community has good and bad forces. Despite what The Hounds preached, we aren’t inherently evil. But a lot of us do believe in collateral damage, especially when it comes to sacrificing what a good portion of the supernatural community consider a food source anyway.”
Frost looked pale, so pale I stepped forward in case he passed out. “I don’t want to die…” he whispered. Something about him tugged at the heart I didn’t realize I had. Enit was making me soft.
It would be a waste of life, and that was something I’d vowed to preserve when I took my oath as a doctor. “I’ll do what I can, Frost. We aren’t monsters, and we have consciences. I’ll argue on your behalf. But if he’s hurt her, not even God will save you from the wrath of the immortals.”
With that, I left. I needed to message Bohdie and see if he had found our Enit yet. They should be nearing the border by now, and I hated that I was stuck here, waiting for news. She was my girlfriend too. But I would only be a lead weight holding them back from getting to her faster.
Still, I wish they’d hurry. I needed to feel her back under my palms, taste her lips once more.
26
Bohdie
Since I found her, I hadn’t been more than three steps from her. My lion panicked everytime she moved out of sight. We had been the ones to lose her, and the anxiety about that happening again was overwhelming.
I lay curled against her in the dark, the soft snores of Stacey on her other side as she clung to our mate soothing both me and my beast. But I couldn’t sleep. Running on adrenaline for the last week had burned out my nerves. It didn’t help that Enit stank of guilt and sadness.
She was restless too, and I felt the moment she drifted back out of her listless sleep.
I wrapped an arm around her hips, pulling her closer to me. I kissed her short, spiked hair. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head. “No.”
Stacey reached for her in her sleep, and I’d never tell Doc this, but she looked kind of adorable in her periodic table pajamas. Sometimes I forgot that she was so young; her demeanor was of someone so much older. She’d seen loss and the worst of humankind way too much in her short life, even more so than the rest of us.
Enit put her hand over Stacey’s, where it rested on her stomach, and then I put mine over the top, sending my protective Alpha pheromones through the room, soothing their restlessness. It was a promise to keep watch, that I would protect them so they could sleep easy.
But my Omega, she wasn’t resting easy.
“Do you want to talk about it? If not to me, to Doc?”
I felt her stiffen, and then her body seemed to curl in on itself in defeat and I hated it. Hated that I couldn’t just fight whatever dark thoughts had chased away her sleep.
“I had sex with Kell.” Her words were even and measured, like she’d put a lot of effort into her confession.
